Quincy Jones, Grammy-Winning Producer Behind Michael Jackson’s Biggest Hits, Dies at 91

Quincy Jones, the musical giant whose six-decade, barrier-breaking career encompassed many creative personas—musician, songwriter, producer, conductor, arranger, artist, record label owner and executive, TV/film producer, magazine publisher and humanitarian—has died. He was 91.

According to Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, the 27-time Grammy Award winner (out of a record 79 nominations) and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer died on Sunday night (Nov. 3) at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.

“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”

Among the survivors are his seven children, including actress Rashida Jones.

“Quincy Jones is the ultimate music renaissance man,” fellow music legend Clive Davis told Billboard in 2013. “Quincy is ever young, ever vital, with an imagination as large as the biggest heart in the world.”

In a monumental career spanning more than 60 years, Jones collaborated with a host of musical luminaries ranging from mentors Count Basie and Clark Terry to Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson. Among a cross-section of his storied accomplishments: Jones produced Jackson’s best-selling albums Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad; obtained the rights to the novel The Color Purple and cast a young Oprah Winfrey in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 Oscar-nominated film adaptation; and helmed the historic recording sessions for the 1985 all-star charity single and Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “We Are the World.” Taking the A&R helm at Mercury Records in 1961, Jones became the first African-American to serve as a VP at a major label. That affiliation resulted in his producing several hits for Lesley Gore, beginning with her 1963 pop debut “It’s My Party.”

Jones broke the color barrier again as the first black composer to receive name recognition for his film work. The first theatrical feature that Jones scored was Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker in 1964. With the support of Lumet and other industry allies like Henry Mancini and Sidney Poitier, Jones composed the music for two landmark films released in 1967: best picture Oscar winner In the Heat of the Night and In Cold Blood, based on the Truman Capote bestseller.

Segueing into television, Jones wrote the memorable theme songs for such series as The Bill Cosby Show, Ironside and Sanford and Son. He also executive produced The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, starring rapper and fledgling actor Will Smith, and In the House, starring LL Cool J.

“Quit” was a foreign word to Jones, who survived two brain aneurysms in 1974. After the first, he wrote in his 2008 book, The Complete Quincy Jones: My Journey & Passions: Photos, Letters, Memories & More from Q’s Personal Collection, “It didn’t look like I’d make it, so my friends planned a memorial service. … They had the concert anyway.” With his neurologist at his side, he attended the service at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles as Richard Pryor, Marvin Gaye, Sarah Vaughan and Sidney Poitier paid tribute to his great talent and legacy.

Looking back on his career on the occasion of his 80^th birthday, Jones told Billboard, “I feel fortunate to have been born at a time where I was able to work with every person who shaped the history of American culture. It’s God’s plan, and you just have to open your heart and embrace every part of it.”

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born in Chicago on March 14, 1933, to parents Quincy Delight Jones Sr. and Sarah Frances Jones, and was raised with his only full-blood brother, Lloyd. His mother worked in a bank before being admitted to a mental institution for schizophrenia when Quincy was just a youngster; his father was a carpenter who played semi-pro baseball.

Quincy Sr. divorced Sarah shortly after she was institutionalized and remarried a woman named Elvera, who had three children. They then had three more of their own, for an eight-sibling family.

“We were in the heart of the largest black ghetto in Chicago during the Depression,” Jones recalled in an interview for the Academy of Achievement, “and every block was the spawning ground for every gangster, black and white, in America too. So we were around all of that.”

In 1943, his father uprooted the family to move to Bremerton, Wash., and then to Seattle, where Quincy Jr. attended Garfield High School and ignited his passion for music by studying composition and learning to play the trumpet. When just a teenager, Jones met a 16-year-old Ray Charles—a meeting captured in the 2004 Jamie Foxx–starring biopic Ray—who became a huge inspiration, teacher and friend. They would later work together on numerous musical projects.

While attending Seattle University, Jones played in the college band and continued to study music, but completed just one semester before transferring to Boston’s Berklee College of Music on a scholarship. He ultimately left Berklee to tour with Lionel Hampton as a trumpeter, before establishing himself as an arranger for some of the era’s leading talents, including Charles, Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington and Gene Krupa.

As a solo artist, Jones signed with ABC Paramount Records in 1956 and moved to Paris a year later, when he became the musical director for Mercury Records’ French distributor Barclay Records. In addition to studying composition with Nadia Boulanger, he toured throughout Europe working as musical director for composer Harold Arlen’s Free and Easy touring show. He also formed a band called The Jones Boys that was comprised of jazz artists from that show. They got great reviews, but money was scarce.

“We had the best jazz band on the planet, and yet we were literally starving,” he told Musician magazine. “That’s when I discovered that there was music and there was the music business. If I were to survive, I would have to learn the difference between the two.”

Jones began working with Frank Sinatra in 1958 when they collaborated on a benefit show for which Jones did the arrangements. Sinatra—who nicknamed Jones “Q”—later hired him to arrange his 1964 album It Might as Well Be Swing with the Count Basie Orchestra. His first Grammy win was in 1964 for best arrangement on the Count Basie Orchestra’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” Jones next worked on the 1966 live set Sinatra at the Sands, which contained his famous arrangement of “Fly Me to the Moon” (the first recording played by astronaut Buzz Aldrin when he landed on the moon in 1969). Sinatra and Jones also worked together on various TV shows and other recordings, resulting in subsequent arranging gigs for other artists like Billy Eckstine and Peggy Lee.

“There was no gray to the man. It was either black or white,” Jones said of Sinatra in 2001’s Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones. “If he loved you, there was nothing in the world he wouldn’t do for you. If he didn’t like you, shame on your ass. I know he loved me too. In all the years working together, we never once had a contract—just a handshake.”

Irving Green, president and founder of Mercury Records, helped Jones secure a music director position at the label, and by 1964, he’d advanced to VP, becoming the first African-American to achieve that post at a major label. During his Mercury tenure, Jones moonlighted as a film composer, scoring the critically acclaimed Pawnbroker for Lumet, which led to his leaving Mercury and relocating to Los Angeles to pursue more film work.

In 1965, he composed the score for Sydney Pollack’s first film, The Slender Thread, starring Poitier. Jones went on to score more than 35 movies, including Walk, Don’t Run (1966), Carl Reiner’s Enter Laughing (1967), Paul Mazursky’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), The Italian Job (1969), Cactus Flower (1969), They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970) and The Getaway (1972).

In 1968, Jones became the first African-American to receive two Oscar nominations in the same year. He and songwriting partner Bob Russell (they were the first African-Americans to be nominated for best original song) were honored for “The Eyes of Love” from the Robert Wagner romantic drama Banning, and his original score for In Cold Blood was nominated as well. Jones’ total of six Academy Award nominations include best picture, original score and original song for 1985’s The Color Purple, which received 11 Academy Award nods overall.

In 1971 Jones became the first African-American to be named musical director and conductor for the Oscars; he later served as executive producer for the Academy Awards in 1996. His acceptance of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995 marked another first for an African-American. With seven Oscar nods, he tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton as the African-American with the most nominations.

Along the way, Jones’ spate of solo albums also brought the multi-faceted talent critical and popular acclaim, beginning with 1969’s Walking in Space and including Gula Matari, Smackwater Jack, You’ve Got It Bad Girl, Body Heat, Mellow Madness, I Heard That!, Sounds … And Stuff Like That!, The Dude and Back on the Block. As a songwriter, his vast catalog has been sampled by such artists as the late Tupac Shakur and Kanye West. One of Jones’ most-licensed tracks is 1962’s “Soul Bossa Nova.” The lively track was used for the 1998 World Cup in France, Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run (1969), the Austin Powers movies and on television’s Glee.

In 1975, Jones founded Qwest Productions, for which he arranged and produced albums by Sinatra and other major pop stars. He produced the soundtrack for The Wiz (1978), starring Jackson and Diana Ross. Soon thereafter, he and the future King of Pop recorded a series of game-changing albums that includes the top-selling Thriller.

“I think it’s safe to say that what we—Michael Jackson, me, Rod Temperton, Bruce Swedien, Jerry Hey, Greg Phillinganes and my entire studio A-Team—did with Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad will never be matched,” Jones told Billboard in 2013. “It was the perfect convergence of talent, experience and timing, with enough space for God to walk through the room.”

Establishing Qwest Records in 1980 as a joint venture with Warner Music Group, Jones oversaw an eclectic group of artist, including Sinatra, British post-punk band New Order, Joy Division, James Ingram, Tevin Campbell, Andraé Crouch, Patti Austin, Siedah Garrett, Gregory Jefferson and Justin Warfield.

Beyond entertainment, social activism played an important role throughout Jones’ life. He supported Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, worked with Jesse Jackson’s P.U.S.H. movement, and teamed with Bono on a number of humanitarian projects. He founded an organization called The Quincy Jones Listen Up Foundation, dedicated to building homes in Africa and empowering youth via educational programs in music and culture.

Turning his attention to famine relief in 1985, Jones gathered together a diverse lineup of music superstars inside A&M Studios in L.A., leading the recording session for “We Are the World”—famously directing the assembled artists to “check your ego at the door.” The Grammy Award-winning USA for Africa benefit single raised more than $63 million for Ethiopian famine relief.

In 1990, he formed Quincy Jones Entertainment in a co-venture with Time Warner. QJE produced the NBC sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which put rapper Smith on the map as an actor, as well as UPN’s In the House and Fox’s Mad TV, among others. In 1993, he co-founded QDE, Quincy Jones/David Salzman Entertainment. In addition to producing films, TV shows and educational entertainment, QDE published two magazines, VIBE and Spin.

Beyond his 27 Grammy Awards, Jones’ numerous accolades include the Grammy Living Legend and Trustees awards and France’s highest honor: Commandeur de la Legion d’Honneur. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, Jones had most recently produced the 2014 documentary Keep on Keepin’ On, about jazz trumpeter Clark Terry and his mentorship of blind piano prodigy Justin Kauflin.

In his later years, Jones continued to stay busy discovering and nurturing next-generation artists including Kauflin, Nikki Yanofsky, Emily Bear and Alfredo Rodriguez. He performed in the World Peace Concert in Hiroshima, Japan in 2013, launched such ventures as Dubai Music Week through his Global Gumbo group of international artists, created the musical app Playground Sessions and partnered on branded merchandise from headphones (Harman) to watches (Audemars-Piguet). In 2013, he filed a $10 million lawsuit against MJJ Productions, controlled by the Michael Jackson Estate, and Sony Entertainment, alleging that he was shorted royalties from posthumous releases. The presiding judge ruled in February 2016 that the case would proceed to trial on June 15.

In the final chapter of his impactful career, Jones announced in 2023 a major restructuring of Quincy Jones Productions, ultimately closing its artist management division. The decision marked a shift toward prioritizing creative endeavors in music, film, and technology. While stepping away from artist management, Jones remained committed to mentoring young talent, celebrating the successes of Grammy winners like Jacob Collier and Jon Batiste, and expressing gratitude for the contributions of outgoing division president Adam Fell. Even with these changes, Jones continued to support the next generation of artists until his passing.

Quincy Jones Productions had been focused on a dynamic slate of projects across various media. Among them were film, television, and stage ventures, including a musical adaptation of The Color Purple and a Broadway show on the history of Black music. Jones also held influential partnerships, such as his Q-Line audio products with Harman International and Qwest TV, a streaming platform centered on jazz.

Last year, Jones also celebrated his 90th birthday with a star-studded two-night tribute at the Hollywood Bow,). The celebration, led by his goddaughter Patti Austin and featuring performances from Stevie Wonder and rising jazz star Samara Joy, captured Jones’ six-decade career and legacy as an artist, producer, arranger, and conductor. From soulful renditions of Jones’ classics to tributes from his longtime collaborators, the event underscored the profound impact he had on generations of musicians.

Performers, backed by core members of Jones’ house band and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, brought Jones’ iconic work to life, including collaborations with Michael Jackson, highlighted by renditions of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “P.Y.T.,” and “Man in the Mirror.” With powerhouse performances like Jennifer Hudson’s take on “You Don’t Own Me,” Jones’ contributions as a trailblazer in breaking racial barriers in the industry were also honored.

The evening closed with Wonder leading the ensemble in “Happy Birthday,” a fitting tribute to a man whose work brought people together.

Jones was married to high-school sweetheart Jeri Caldwell from 1957-66, to actress Ulla Andersson from 1967-74 and to actress Peggy Lipton of TV’s The Mod Squad (Rashida’s mom) from 1974-90. He is survived by seven children, including one child apiece with dancer Carol Reynolds and actress Nastassja Kinski.

Additional reporting by Gail Mitchell.

This article was originally published by Billboard U.S.